First for newby's, I've lived probably more of my Adult life in the City of Melbourne. I lived there for close to 15 years but did move there from a regional city that used to be much smaller than it is now, which of course is Bendigo, Central Victoria. In that time I still had family living in the regionally area so kept in touch with what happens in the country.

Now of course I live just out side of Leeton which is a large regional town. What I have noticed of the years is the cycling commitments and advantages/disadvantages are completely different. Something which is understandably over looked by people who live most of there lives in the cities.

I believe that cycling on holidays in the country is again different then commuting and riding permanently in country areas. I'll list several reason I believe that.

1. Commuting is the first big difference, our workplace's are usually smaller and don't have the room for bike storage and showers in a lot of case's. Distance's can also make a big impact, 20 to 40k commutes in the cities can be a good time saving, not so in most country areas. No public transport means a family living out of town must rely on cars or utes. We do have school buses but they don't cover every area and can still mean 2 or 3 kids need to be driven distance's to catch the bus. Trucks and cars travel much faster on sometimes narrow rough roads making commuting an interesting prospect not to mention letting your kids ride to school.

I'm going to split this up in to multiple posts as it's to much to read in one lot.

Point 2 is licenses and vehicles, losing or not having a license in the city can be an inconvenience but unless you rely on it for work you can get away without one. Our here is possible but with out and decent public transport or in some areas not at all makes a licenses and a vehicle in some case's almost mandatory. Cycling is a great option for small towns or people who live close in but for some of the others it's not even a good option.

3: Riding safety is another big one in my books. Although I use claiming the road a lot riding in town in particular roundabouts, I think it's a crazy idea on Highways and back roads. Not sure where it was but I remember seeing some stats showing a lot higher incidence of rear ending of cyclists on country roads which more often or not ends in death. Not point being in the right and dead, the argument used in the cities is by not claiming the road, cars often share the lane going really close by and sometimes clip riders. Fair enough point in the cities but on country roads in some case where highways may be 110kph I'd rather be clipped and badly hurt than hit from behind and killed.

4. Long rides in country areas is something that also must be thought through. The further out from civilisation and the area you ride in, can make a big difference. I live in a semi arid with lots of back roads which make great riding but you must make sure even for a 2 to 3 hour ride that you take everything with you that you might need. Water, repair tools and such in some areas there is no traffic of hours on end and no phone coverage.

For now I'll leave it because I usually think about these things when I'm riding and can't rembemer them when I'm on the computer.

Needles to say country issues and conditions are different than regular city issues and I hope to see them discussed here and not lost in the white water of city issues.I for reason which should be clear, have always kept my eye on who joins from the country areas, but have notice a lot join, post 1/2 a dozen times and disappear. Sometimes they hang around but over a period of a couple of years have quite a low post count.

As this is an "Australian Cycling Forum" I'd like to see more wide spread "Australia" postings.

martinjs wrote:3: Riding safety is another big one in my books. Although I use claiming the road a lot riding in town in particular roundabouts, I think it's a crazy idea on Highways and back roads.

Having a very similar background to Martin, I can agree 100% with what he is trying to say.

Riding in the country can very quickly remind you of just how insignificant a cyclist can be on a road. Thankfully most drivers up here a very mindful of this. It still pays to keep in mind they're not used to a bike, so the best thing to do is to swallow your pride and get out of their way.

Despite ALL of this the benefits are HUGE!!!! Fresh air, little traffic and b-e-a-utiful scenery. There's rarely a day when it takes more than half the trip home to realise how much better my situation now is compared to living in the city

Nice target there for 2014, but little activity. We have a good sprinkling of riders coming from the Murray plains to the Lake Hume Cycle Challenge on Feb 22. A good chance to catch up on those km and climbs. Come on over, and bring a few mates.

Hi Lake Hume Cycler, sorry I've be AWOL for a while, made redundant mid last year and it through me out a bit. My main cycling was riding to and from work so when the job went so did my cycling for a while. I just had my first ride in 3 months so I've got to get back in to the swing of it again. Now also riding with a GoPro so hopefully will get some good country road footage to post!

Took me a while to get back a second time! Last year was a wipe out just couldn't get a routine going and was trying different exercise methods for fitness and such. I'm back on the bike AGAIN cause over the years it's me the most successful method of weight lost for me.

Not to mention I finally realized I was missing the rides through the outlying areas of the shire. Only 7k's a day at the moment but aiming to push it up over the weeks.As for my work, now running my own small business "Martin's Computer Service" which is slowly growing by word of mouth!